Table 1 CHIWOS Vision, Mission, Mandate & Core Values

Vision, Mission and Mandate

Vision

CHIWOS envisions a country where all women living with HIV are able to achieve optimal health and well-being, no matter where they are in their experience of HIV and in their lives. CHIWOS aims to contribute to this vision through transformational women-centred community-based research and action that is driven by HIV-positive women, researchers, care providers and policy makers, in all of their diversity, together, within an equitable and mutually respectful environment.

Mission

CHIWOS is committed to creating new knowledge that will be used to support women living with HIV in Canada to achieve optimal health and wellbeing through meaningfully involving them in every stage of the research process by providing a safe, innovative, and transformational research environment.

Mandate

To assess the barriers to and facilitators of women-centred HIV care use and the impact of such patterns of use on overall, HIV, mental, women’s, sexual and reproductive health outcomes of women living with HIV across Canada, through excellence in women-centred community-based research.

Core Values

Integrity

CHIWOS believes that integrity should be at the core of everything we do. Integrity is the quality of being honest and responsible. It is the willingness to act according to the ethics, values, beliefs and principles that we hold as members of CHIWOS.

Respect

CHIWOS strives to promote feelings of esteem and interact in such a way as to promote that esteem among all members. This means having a sense of the worth or excellence of oneself and others, both as professionals and human beings. It also means behaving in ways that would bring credit and honour upon oneself and the team to which one belongs.

Accountability

CHIWOS encourages its members to accept responsibility for their actions and work. It is hoped that members of this project will see themselves accountable to each other as well as to women living with HIV in Canada.

Inclusivity

CHIWOS acknowledges the multiple, complex, and overlapping identities that create a rich and vibrant community with many different experiences of health and wellness. All of these experiences will be shared and honoured.

Equity

CHIWOS understands that disparities in health result from systemic inequalities that are unjust and unfair, and will work to address these disparities holistically.

Partnership and Collaboration

CHIWOS is committed to working in partnership with community members, and other stakeholders in HIV-positive women’s health, at all stages of our research. Diverse forms of knowledge are valued and inform our work. Collaboration deepens and strengthens our impact.

Empowerment

CHIWOS strives to create a forum for the celebration of existing capacities and skills, and to create an opportunity to build on the skills, abilities and the courage of individuals and communities to make informed choices, and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes.

Social Action

CHIWOS aims to be transformational. The research process and the knowledge produced will act as vehicles for positive and sustainable social change that will promote health and wellness among women living with HIV.